Death Valley National Park, California:  19 June 2004

On foot, with no paved roads, this must have been a terrifying region.  In places like The Devils Golf Course, the ground looks to be locked in a silent scream, as if it died a tortured death.  I went without AC for a while, and took a good stroll in the desert heat, but it was nice to know that I could retreat to cool comfort whenever I wanted to.  Those intrepid pioneers had no such option.  [29 photos]

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CA-190 East, through Panamint Valley. That 10-mile climb leads to DVNP. You can watch your temperature guage rise with the elevation.		Ruins of a borax mine.	Parched earth.	The strange yellow walls of Mustard Canyon.	A closer look at the long-dried mud.
Moby, in shot for perspective	The bleak, gray road, looking back at Mustard Canyon	Death Valley Hotel, at sea level.	Large, smoothed hills, from Zabriskie Point.	Looking west from Zabriskie Point, a couple hundred feet above sea level.	Zabriskie Point
Velvet ground at ZP	CA-178 south, through Death Valley	Devils Golf Course, looking northwest	Devils Golf Course, facing east	Painted foothills	Devils Golf Course, looking south
	Moby at DGC	Salt crystals. Not easy to walk on this stuff, and it goes on for miles.	Badwater, the lowest point in the USA: 282 feet below sea level	The highly-salinated water is bad for drinking, hence the name.	Mud
Find this sign in th next photo...	"Sea Level" sign is barely visible, 2/3's of the way up that ridge.		The Badwater boardwalk.	CA-178, heading east into Nevada.